


These Things I'll Never Say

by martianwahtney



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [7]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Falling In Love, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Abuse, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, Love Confessions, M/M, Tony Stark Has A Heart, these are My emotional support idiots, ur honor he's a good bro that's in love with his best friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:02:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24618784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martianwahtney/pseuds/martianwahtney
Summary: 5 times Rhodes confessed his feelings to Tony, and one time Tony did it for him
Relationships: James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1598119
Comments: 15
Kudos: 151
Collections: IronHusbands, Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	These Things I'll Never Say

**Author's Note:**

> Title: These Things I'll Never Say  
> Collaborator Name: chel  
> Card Number: 3020  
> Square Filled: S5 Confessions in Desperate Situations  
> Ship/Main Pairing: ironhusbands  
> Rating: g  
> Major Tags: implied/referenced abuse

1\.   
Rhodes cradled his head in his hands and exhaled long and slow. He hated finals, they were always way more stressful than they needed to be. While he was almost done with his calculus work, he still had some engineering work to muddle through.

Something was placed near his head and he sat up to find that Tony had set down a large cup of coffee. He knew Tony from his engineering class, they’d spoken a few times and Tony was nice, if not a little strange and eccentric. Rhodes thought he was great.

“Tones,” he said softly.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Go ahead, I could use the company,” Rhodes said.

“And thanks,” he added as he grabbed the coffee.

“Anytime platypus,”

Rhodes grinned at him and took a sip of his coffee. It was made just the way he liked it.

“You’re amazing,” Rhodes said with a blissful smile.

Tony grinned at him, his entire face lighting up like the sun.

“I know. Wanna get some engineering done?”

“Let me finish up this first,” he said.

Rhodes glanced at Tony one more time, a small smile on his face. He really was amazing.

2.  


Rhodes paced nervously as Tony typed away on his computer. Rhodes had somehow- foolishly- gotten the data analysis wrong on one of his math projects, and he didn’t realize it until there were only two days left before it was due.

To say he was panicking was an understatement.

He didn’t think he’d been that distracted lately, but he had been helping Tony with Dum-E and usually that meant late nights in Tony’s lab. He loved helping with Dum-E, all of the bots accomplishments always made Tony light up in the best way.

“Found it! It’s toward the end,” Tony said as he highlighted the mistake.

He started talking, no doubt explaining the right way to finish the problem but Rhodes could hear nothing past the relief flooding his system. He wasn’t doomed. He was still going to get an A on the project all thanks to his wonderful, crazy smart best friend.

“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Rhodes croaked, interrupting whatever it was that Tony was saying.

Tony flushed and waved him off.

3.  


Rhodes glanced at his phone for what felt like the upteenth time. He’d sent Tony a SOS message half an hour ago and there hadn’t been a response. It was very unlike Tony to leave him hanging like this.

“James Rhodes how dare you!” a hand slammed down on the table and Rhodes jumped and looked up to see a very angry looking Tony Stark.

_ What the fuck _ ?

“You said you had to work late at the office!”

“Tones-?”

“You left me alone with our son to go on a date?!” Tony demanded, the twitch of his lips was the only thing that gave him away.

He wasn’t angry at all, he was giving Rhodes an out on his date.

The man sitting across from Rhodes silently stood up and walked out of the restaurant. Tony watched him go and promptly plopped down in the vacated seat, a smug and satisfied smile on his face.

“I got your text,” he said by way of greeting.

“I sent that an half an hour ago,”

“And I broke several speeding laws to get here in time,” Tony replied.

Rhodes couldn’t contain his laughter any longer, he laughed far too loudly for the restaurant they were in but he didn’t care because Tony was an idiot and Rhodes loved that about him.

“So we have a son?” Rhodes asked once he stopped laughing.

“Platypus I know it’s been a few years since he was born but how could you forget Dum-E?” Tony asked with faux shock.

“Ah, that son,”

“Sugar pot, how many sons do you have?”

Rhodes didn’t get a chance to dignify that with a response as the waiter stopped by to take their dessert order. Tony, naturally, ordered them the cheesecake.

“Thanks for getting me out of that date,” Rhodes said softly.

Tony grinned cheekily.

“Really, you’re my hero, Tones,”

Tony was still blushing by the time they got their dessert.

4.  


Rhodes ran a paper towel under cool water and shook it out a few times so it wouldn’t drip.

“You going to yell at me?” Tony asked, his voice small.

“No,” Rhodes said honestly.

“You going to tell me I shouldn’t see him anymore?”

Rhodes paused for a moment at the sink before he turned and made his way to the living room where Tony was sitting on the couch. 

“Anyone who lays a hand on you like this doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near you,” Rhodes said at last, taking a seat on the couch next to Tony.

“So yes,” he said as an afterthought.

“Howard-”  
“Fuck Howard too,” Rhodes responded.

The tiniest smile touched Tony’s lip and instantly he winced at the cut on his lip. Rhodes winced in return and offered him the damp paper towel. Tony took it and pressed it against the cut.

“Is Ty someone you really want to be with?” Rhodes asked softly.

Tony shook his head slowly.

“If… if Ty and Howard,”

“Tones,” Rhodes said softly, already knowing where Tony was going.

“You deserve so much better than Ty and Howard, and I’m sorry you had to deal with them,” he said as he pulled his friend into a hug.

“You deserve the goddamn world,” Rhodes said softly, pressing a soft kiss to Tony’s head.

5.  


_ I’ve been in love with him since MIT _ .

The thought plagued Rhodey the entire flight to New York. He was in love with Tony and Tony could fucking die. If Tony died Rhodes wouldn’t know what to do with himself. The flight took too fucking long. It was Afghanistan all over again and it had been three months since Tony vanished and Rhodes felt like he couldn’t breathe.

_ I love him, and he might die _ .

But god that was bullshit. If Afghanistan didn’t take him out then there was no fucking way an alien invasion- and a nuke and a wormhole apparently- were going to take Tony from him. Tony wasn’t going to die. He couldn’t.

Rhodes touched down on the landing pad with such force that the tiles cracked. In any other situation he would have felt bad about it, but the rest of the Tower was in shambles so one more broken tile would mean very little in the grand scheme of things.

He tore out of the armor and stumbled inside the Tower. There were people there, but they might have well been non-existent because Rhodey could only see Tony. 

“Tones,”

Tony saw him and lit up like the fucking sun.

_ I love you _ .

“Platypus,”

He all but fell into Tony’s arms.

“You’re ok,” Rhodes said softly, clinging to Tony like he was his personal lifeline.

“I’m ok,”

“You can’t do that again, Tones. I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t…” Rhodes couldn’t make himself say the words.

“You can’t do that again,” he repeated.

Tony held him a little tighter.

+1  


Tony paused the movie for the twentieth time to talk shit. Rhodes just listened with a content smile on his face.

“Tones if you don’t stop pausing it we’re never going to finish this movie,” Rhodes warned.

Rhodes looked at Tony with a small smile on his face. Tony was already frowning at the tv and he looked like he was three seconds away from pausing the movie for the twenty-first time and Rhodes loved him. It would be so fucking easy to just lean in and kiss him. So he did. It was soft and easy and felt so right.

Rhodes pulled away from him. He couldn’t think of a single thing to say. Tony just smiled and leaned in to kiss him again.

“I know,” he said quietly.

Rhodes didn’t have a chance to respond to that before Tony kissed him for a third time.

“I love you too, Platypus,”

**Author's Note:**

> [i think it'd be really fucking cool of us to NEVER speak of how i got the title for this fic](http://www.lronhusbands.tumblr.com/)


End file.
